NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> HotWired study
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> HotWired study
Kevin Leathers (Kevin.Leathers_at_elecomm.com)
Wed, 08 Jan 1997 10:22:37 -0600
HotWired 1996 Advertising Effectiveness Study
>This is exactly the type of research so badly needed by publishers
>and advertisers alike, and hot-wired is to be congratulated for
>conducting it and publishing the results.
>
>Can we now put to bed the erroneous notion that CTR is the only way
>to measure banner advertising?
My first reservation is that HotWired conducted and published their own
results. With out knowing what questions were asked and how they were asked
to the test group, it is hard to say how credible this study is (I'm waiting
to receive a copy of the complete study). Don't get me wrong, it does seem
that if you want to find out anything about web advertising, you have to do
it yourself.
Let's keep one thing in mind though. Not all products or services are
marketed the same way. To say that exposure is what is important is o.k. if
you are selling Coke/Pepsi but not if you are trying to get out a message
about a new product or service. Further, clickthrough is not important if
you all you want to do is have the viewer place Coke at the top of the list
when she strolls down the isle of the local 7-11. This is the strategy of
many brands like Tide, Nike, Crest, etc., however click through is very
important when a new message needs to be heard.
In my industry we have different clients trying to get accross different
messages. There are ways to address each. Pharmaceutical companies with
established products fall into the group of: exposure alone can do the job,
these companies just want the doctor to think of their brand when he puts
the pen to the prescription pad. New drugs on the other hand require an
education process, and usually require huge ad budgets to place multi page
ads in all available medical journals, this is where the Internet becomes a
bargain. Companies can tie their 4, 8 or whatever page ad to a banner ad
without having to rent banners on multiple pages, and it can stay there
untill all of the doctor have had a chance to read it, at no additional
cost. This is where clickthroughs become important, but it is not the job of
the medium to get viewers to clickthrough, it is the responsibility of the
company or creative agency to prompt the viewer to click (ie: a reason to
want to know the latest cure for___).
We have worked with clients to determine their needs and for those that
require more than banner exposure, we have tested different banner messages.
Although Brand name and FREE SAMPLES gets some hits, the most effective
banner ads were those that did not mention the company or product, but ask a
question or makes a statement that requires a conclusion, ie: You don't need
an MBA to be an MD, used by a company providing office management services
to doctors. This company would not be recognized by name but their message
still needs to be heard.
You can view some of our banner types at: http://www.obgyn.net. They are not
the prettiest, but we are getting a good feel for what works.
Regards,
Kevin Leathers
Kevin J. Leathers
Director, Advertising Sales & Marketing
OBGYN.net: A Service of Elecomm Internet Applications
(http://www.obgyn.net) kevin.leathers_at_obgyn.net
(http://www.elecomm.com) kevin.leathers_at_elecomm.com
3616 Far West Blvd., Suite 101-234 Austin, Texas 78731-3074 USA
1+(888) 451-2842 toll free USA
1+(512) 451-2842 outside USA
1+(512) 377-5626 FAX
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